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Question

The standard deviation of 100 observations is 10. If 20 is added to each observation, then what will be the new standard deviation?

This question was previously asked in
NDA 2 2025 GAT Question Paper (14-Sep-2025)
The correct answer is

10

To solve this problem, we need to understand the effect of adding a constant to each observation on the standard deviation of the data set.

The standard deviation is a measure of the dispersion of a set of data points around their mean. It is calculated as follows:

\(\sigma = \sqrt{\frac{1}{N} \sum_{i=1}^{N} (x_i - \mu)^2}\)

Where:

  • \(\sigma\) is the standard deviation.
  • \(N\) is the number of observations.
  • \(x_i\) is each individual observation.
  • \(\mu\) is the mean of the observations.

When a constant is added to each observation, the mean of the data set increases by that constant. However, the deviation of each observation from the mean remains unchanged, so the difference \((x_i - \mu)\) is unaffected by the addition of the constant.

Therefore, adding a constant to every observation will not change the standard deviation. The standard deviation will remain the same as before the addition of the constant.

Given in the question, the standard deviation of the original data set is 10. Since adding 20 to each observation does not affect the standard deviation, the new standard deviation remains:

\(\text{Standard Deviation} = 10\)

Thus, the correct answer is 10.

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Similar Questions

  1. The standard deviation of 100 observations is 10. If 5 is added to each observation and then divided by 20, then what will be the new standard deviation?


Important Questions from Standard Deviation

  1. A cold drink bottling plant fills bottles of 500 ml. capacity with mean of 500 ml. and a standard deviation of 5 ml. Atleast what percentage of bottles would contain cold drink between 490 ml. and 510 ml.?

  2. The mean and standard deviation of 100 terms are 50 and 3, respectively. The sum of squares of the 100 terms is:

  3. Following are the ages (in years) of 6 people in a group: 25, 30, 35, 40, 45 and 50. What is the standard deviation of their ages (rounded to two decimal places)?
  4. If the mean of a random variable X following Poisson distribution is 3, then standard deviation of the distribution is:

  5. If the standard deviation of a population is 100, then based on a sample of size 100, the standard deviation of sample mean is equal to:

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